UCF in the hunt for New Smyrna Beach ATH D'Cota Dixon

Chris Hays | Florida RecruitingOrlando Sentinel

D'Cota Dixon isn't exactly sure how UCF stacks up against his other top scholarship offers from the likes of Michigan State, Wisconsin and Louisville.

What he does know is that the Knights have a good shot at landing his services and he'll be on campus Saturday night to check things out as UCF takes on Houston in a key American Athletic Conference contest.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not … they’re playing great right now and they have a good program,” D’Cota said of UCF as a possibility.

The 5-foot-9, 180-pound athlete from New Smyrna Beach does a little bit of everything for the Barracudas, who failed to make the playoffs this season so Dixon played in his final high school game Friday night against Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast. New Smyrna rolled to a 27-6 victory and Dixon rushed for 211 yards and two touchdowns.

“I like it and I’m very interested in UCF,” Dixon said. “They’re doing really good and it’s close to home and it looks like it would be good opportunity, actually, so I feel pretty good about it.”

He said playing somewhere close to home is not going to likely weigh heavily into his decision-making process, but it also won’t hurt the Knights.

“I care mostly about trying to play as early as possible,” Dixon said. “The UCF coaches have told me I might not start right away if I went there, but I will get a good shot at playing time early, which is what I want.”

He said he likes what the 7-1 Knights have done this season and he's anxious to look into what the program has to offer. This weekend's trip will be of the unofficial variety, but he will also be looking to take an official visit later this year or in January.

“I’m just taking everything as it comes and I don’t really have a list together or anything so I haven’t really gotten my top five established,” Dixon said.

He has a tentative visit planned for Wisconsin on Nov. 29 and he will also visit Louisville in January.

Dixon, the No. 5 player in the Sentinel's 2014 Central Florida Super60, who has played a variety of positions at New Smyrna Beach, averaged about five tackles a game this season as a defensive back. Offensively, he played running back and receiver and averaged about 100 yards per game in receiving and rushing .

The Knights like him on defense and likely at safety, which is exactly where Dixon wants to play.

“They said they like me at both positions … but I’d prefer to play safety,” He said. "I like to be in the box and make tackles, coming up on the run.”

So Saturday night the Knights will start to make their pitch and hope to get in on the sweepstakes, and if head coach George O’Leary can get him to make his last official visit to UCF, then he plays right into O’Leary’s strategy.

“You can’t really say anything bad about them,” Dixon said of UCF. “They’ve had a pretty tough schedule. That’s what I notice and they live up to each game. You can’t say anything negative about them . They have a good recruiting class coming in, I’m pretty sure … that should make it more interesting.”